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Hello folks and I hope that this post finds you well on this grey and dreary day?

As some of you regular readers will know I am a big fan of 35mm film. There are loads of reasons for this, however, one of them is the imperfection, look and feel of pictures which are taken on film as well as (for me) the nostalgia!

I am currently going through my scans from the numerous rolls of film which I took with me, and I wanted to share a picture of my two sons which really stuck out the most and really says what our holiday was all about. This particular shot was taken on Rollei CR200 through an Olympus Trip 35.

This particular film is especially for cross processing your images. As you can see it has that old fashioned, classic look! I have a term with which I describe why film works – the beauty of it is in the imperfection.

I intend to share some more pictures from the holiday once they are all scanned and archived.

What are your thoughts on film? Do you think it is dead? Or do you think that there is still a place for the medium of film?

Like this:

Today I was mulling over a post that I had written to add on my blog, but for some reason I was reluctant to publish it. As I was looking at it I had one of those EUREKA moments where an idea just jumps into your head! There it was, my blog post! I was going to write about getting married in Cyprus. I was fortuate to be invited to a family wedding whilst I was out there this Summer. It was a lovely summer’s day, not a cloud in the sky. The church was a beautiful Greek Orthodox church close to the Old Town in Limassol, Cyprus. Afterwards we were guests at an amazing reception held at the Four Season’s Hotel, a gorgeous Five Star Hotel on the Limassol sea front. I am not going to spend the next half hour or so rambling about the day. What I want to do was give some practical advice to anyone who is thinking of getting married abroad – in this case Cyprus.

I am going to break this down in to just a small selection of what I think are the important topics – Formalities / Planning Options / Choosing a photographer

Formalities

The formalities are quite simple, really, and an excuse to stay in sunny Cyprus for at least three weeks! If you want to enter into a civil marriage in Cyprus both bride and groom to be have to apply personally to the Marriage Officer, at the Municipality of their choice, where they will go through a set number of formalities.

The procedure begins with the submission of a document known as a “notice of marriage” to the marriage officer. The marriage can be celebrated, at least 15 days after the date of notice. Under certain circumstances this can be done sooner, however, this will increase the cost you have to pay to get married. The price will increase from 128 Euros to 281 Euros and you can get married within 2-3 working days.

You should be in possession of

Legal identification documents (in the case of single persons). This can include passport, and in some cases, birth certificate.

Evidence that you are free to marry.

And the last thing that you have to do is to make an affirmation in the presence of the Marriage Officer that you know of no impediment or lawful hindrance to your marriage.

You have two choices of venue for where to get married – in the presence of the marriage officer in their office or a church. If you want to get married in a church you would have to still go to the marriage officer and then have the religious ceremony at the Church.

Planning the wedding

There are a couple of options available for getting married inCyprus. The first option is to do it through a planner who does everything for you, or alternatively, if you are feeling brave, or have contacts in Cyprus, you can do this yourself. A quick search through google on the term ‘cyprus wedding planners’ returns a selection of companies. These are three I have selected from within the top 5 –

So how would you go about choosing a photographer? Do you choose a British based one and pay for the travel cost etc, or do you go local? Well my advice would be to go onto a wedding forum, such as you and your wedding and speak to other brides who will be on there and ask whether they could recommend a photographer. The other option is to go to somewhere like the SWPP which is a recognised body that awards qualifications to professional phtographers. This hyperlink it takes you straight to a selection of photographers from Cyprus. The third option is to use the photographer that is supplied by the wedding planner. However, ensure that you check with the planner to see the photographers’ portfolio as well as a sample of a wedding collection.

Essentially, getting married in Cyprus is straightforward. The only thing that I can think of that should be done in advance is book your annual leave (if you are an employee as you will be out of the country for at least 3 weeks).

Good luck and as always if you have any comments or further questions, please get in touch!

If you would like to find out more about Greek Wedding Traditions, then please click here!

This year when we were packing for our summer holiday to Cyprus I had the tough choice of choosing between my diving gear and my DSLRs. Alas the diving gear won! However, I was not going to leave home without a camera, at least. So I decided to pack my trusted Canon Ixus 960IS and its Canon Underwater Housing.

I was introduced to underwater photography by the underwater compact camera guru himself, Paul Duxfield from Cameras Underwater. I subscribe to Dive Magazone and a couple of years ago he was the guest photographer providing tuition in underwater photography using compact cameras.

The beauty of underwater photography using a compact is that you don’t required loads of space to carry your equipment, you don’t require huge strobes, and the results are awesome.

Here are the instructions to get started with underwater photography –

The first thing that is needed is to get the housing prepared. Take the O ring and lube it with silicone gel to ensure that there are no leaks.

Carefully place the O ring into its groove making sure that there are no hairs, or other foreign objects that would allow water to leak in and damage the camera.

Prior to placing the camera into its housing ensure that the battery is fully charged and your memory card is formatted.

Place the camera inside the housing and close the door and lock it shut.

It is important to note the camera settings at this point. The camera has to be set to manual, flash off, and the white balance needs to be set to manual, too. I cannot speak for other cameras, but on the Canon you can assign the printer button on the rear of the camera to ‘set’ the white balance which is key to getting the right colour temperature. It is also important to remember that you should be in possession of a white divers’ slate when diving in order to use when setting the white balance.

Prior to taking the photograph, set the white balance by pointing the camera to the white slate. The white balance will now be set for the depth you are at. Compose the image, depress the shutter half way and when ready take the picture.

After your dive, don’t be tempted to open the housing straight away. You must remember camera aftercare and this involves rinsing the camera housing in fresh water, and then leaving it to soak and giving it another rinse prior to drying and then opening. Carefully remove the O ring, clean it with a cloth that will not leave any fibres on it. When complete rub silicone gel on it and replace.

I hope that this has been useful? It is a really simple guide but the quality of the pictures are amazine. If you do not have a compact camera I would recommend that you get one and a housing if you want to take it underwater. Go to CamerasUnderwater and you will not be dissapointed!

All the pictures in the slideshow were taken on a Canon Ixus 960IS, wide angle lens, manual setting, no flash, manual white balance, evaluative metering, and use of exposure compensation where required.

If you have any questions, or would like to give some feedback get in touch!